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On hearing the word guru, we tend to envision a caricature like image: a bizarre-looking old fellow with a long, stringy beard and flowing robes, meditating on distant, esoteric truths. Or we think of a cosmic con man cashing in on young seekers spiritual gullibility. But what really is a guru? What does he know that we don't? How does he enlighten us? In a talk given in England in 1973, Srila Prabhupada provides some enlightening answers.
om ajnana-timirandhasya
jnananjana-salakaya
caksur unmilitam yena
tasmai sri gurave namah
"I was born in the darkest ignorance, and my guru, my spiritual master, opened my eyes with the torch of knowledge. I offer my respectful obeisance's unto him." The word ajnana means "ignorance" or "darkness." If all the lights in this room immediately went out, we would not be able to tell where others or we are sitting. Everything would become confused. Similarly, we are all in darkness in this material world, which is a world of tamas. Tamas or timira means "darkness." This material world is dark, and therefore it needs sunlight or moonlight for illumination. However, there is another world, a spiritual world that is beyond this darkness. That world is described by sri Krishna in the "Bhagavad-Gita"[15.6]
Na tad bhasayate suryo
Na sasanko Na pavakah
Yad gatva na nivarante
Tad dharma paramam mama
"That abode of mine is not illumined by the sun or moon, or by electricity. One who reaches it never returns to this material world." The gurus business is to bring his disciples from darkness to light. At present everyone is suffering due to ignorance, just as one contracts a disease out of ignorance .if one does not know hygienic principles, he will not know what will contaminate him. Therefore Due to ignorance there is infection, and we suffer from disease .a criminal may say,"I did not know the law," but he will not be excused if he commits a crime. Ignorance is no excuse. Similarly, a child, not knowing that fire will burn, will touch the fire. The fire does not think, "This child, and he does not know that he will burn." No there is any excuse. Just as there are state laws, there are also straighten laws of nature, and these laws will act despite our ignorance of them. If we do something wrong out of ignorance we must suffer. This is the law. Whether the law is a state law or law of nature, we risk suffering if we break it.
The gurus business is to see that no human being suffers in this material world. No one can claim that he is not suffering. That is not possible in this material world, there are three kinds of suffering: adhyatmika, adhibauthika, and adhidaivika. These are miseries arising from the material body and mind, from other living entities, and from the forces of nature. We may suffer mental anguish, or we may suffer from other living entities-from ants or mosquitoes or flies- or we may suffer due to some superior power. There may be no rain, or there may be flood. There may be excessive heat or excessive cold. So many types of suffering are impossible by nature. Thus there are 3 types of miseries within the material world, and everyone is suffering from1, 2,3 of them. No one can say that he is completely free from suffering.
We may then ask why the living entity is suffering. The answer is: out of ignorance. He does not think "I am first committing mistakes and am leading a sinful life; that is why iam suffering" therefore the gurus first business is to rescue his disciple from this ignorance we send our children to school to save them from suffering. If our children do not receive an education, we fear that they will suffer in the future. The guru sees that suffering is due to ignorance, which is compared to darkness. How can one in darkness knowledge and presents it before the living entity enveloped in darkness. That knowledge relives him from suffering of dark ness of ignorance. One may ask whether the guru is absolutely necessary. The Vedas informs us that he is:
Tad-vijnanartham sa gurum e4vabhigacchet
Samit-panih srotriyam brahma-nistham
[Mundaka Upanishad 1.2,12] |
